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employment

being an employee and a (potential) entrepreneur

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Apologies to my loyal readers for the extended blog absence. What can I say – I was perhaps discouraged by the recent pronouncement in wired that blogging was dead – and that twitter is the Next Big Thing.

In any event, I was reading Dilbert this morning. As those who follow the strip know, there has been a running series about how Dilbert started his own business on his company’s time. (As an aside, it was called dilbertfiles.com and is actually a real site that Scott Adams set up for file sharing).

So today, Dilbert gets some bad news:

Dilbert.com

Funny, but true, unfortunately. One of the things that I admire about Dilbert is the way it conveys some simple truths, such as the one above, with a bit of humour. And it never ceases to amaze me that some entrepreneurs do continue to find themselves barfing in their box full of junk. To wit: The founders of MGA Entertainment – the company that was very successful in marketing a line of dolls called “Bratz”. Apparently, the person who came up with the concept and drawings for the Bratz dolls did so while still in the employ of Mattel. Because of that, Mattel claimed that it owned the rights to the Bratz concept. The court agreed, and gave ownership to Mattel, which then wasted no time in seeking (and obtaining) a court order that effectively shut down MGA’s Bratz business and handed the keys over to Mattel. The folks at MGA likely barfed in their box of junk to the tune of several hundred million dollars. Not good.

The fact of the matter is that if you are a budding entrepreneur who still has a job, unless you have a written agreement with your employer that you will personally retain ownership of certain IP that you come up with, then in all probability whatever you create in the course of your employment will in fact be the property of your employer. So think twice about creating that little side software project on your work computer. Or, for that matter, that really cool blog. Otherwise, you may find yourself handing it over when it’s worth quite a bit more.

dooced, canadian style

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A good article in The Lawyer’s Weekly about someone getting dooced in Alberta. The short version: Woman blogs anonymously about her supervisors and co-workers, but in a way that makes all of them easily recognizable to anyone in her work place. Oh, and things she says aren’t exactly nice. Her employer fires her as a result. Goes to arbitration and the termination is upheld. Perhaps not all that suprising. Anyway, some thoughts and tips from the article:

Although the dismissal was upheld in Alberta Union, not all Web 2.0 posts that an employer finds distasteful will provide grounds for discipline or termination. Blogging or Facebooking at work is one thing, but the general rule regarding discipline for off-duty conduct is that an employer is not the custodian of their employees’ private lives. Exceptions are made when, as it was found in Alberta Union, the posts irreparably harm the employment relationship. This can include conduct that:

• prevents employees from performing their duties satisfactorily;

• interferes with employees’ ability to work effectively with fellow co-workers;

• breaks confidentiality policies or employees’ duty of fidelity to the employer;

• harasses or defames management or fellow employees;

• deliberately attempts to undermine management’s ability to direct its workforce;

• harms the company’s reputation (however, rank and file employees may be held to a lower standard than those employees who hold higher positions of trust or responsibility).

Counsel should encourage employers to take measures to prevent the sort of conduct that attracts discipline in the first place. Having a discussion with employees is a good start. The general tenor of blogs and social networking sites is akin to casual conversation, and, naturally, many people will talk about work.

Unfortunately, as Alberta Union illustrates, many employees are unaware Web 2.0 conduct can affect their careers and attract legitimate sanction. Pointing this out to employees can save both the employer and the employee a lot of grief.

Alberta v. Alberta Union of Provincial Employees (R. Grievance), [2008] A.G.A.A. No. 20

you know its time to stop blogging when…

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Well. From the “this is rather sad, isn’t it” department, The Register reports on how blogging has now become part of official employment duties at some shops:

According to an official release from the group, Ged Doherty, chairman and chief executive of SonyBMG in UK and Ireland, said the company “has made it obligatory for all senior staff at both Columbia Records and RCA Records to start blogging actively”.

So what happens to staff who refuse to toe the corporate line, or perhaps fail to produce the required quantity of blog blather?

We had to find out.

A spokesperson for SonyBMG told us “you won’t be sacked for failing to blog”, but added, rather ominously: “If you don’t blog, it’s going to be frowned upon. Ged has made it clear that staff are expected to blog and participate in the community. He sees it as part of people’s jobs.”

Surprising to say the least. Wasn’t there a time not long ago when one could get fired for blogging? If memory serves the term was “dooced”, after the blog of the same name. Rather ironic to now hear this.

Dunno – seems rather to take a bit of the fun and spontaneity out of it if its actually part of the job. And isn’t that what makes blogs interesting in the first place? I can’t imagine things being very spontaneous if someone is “frowning upon” you for not blogging, particularly when the person doing the frowning happens to be your boss.